Salesforce.com President Jumps Ship

Freeland is resigning to take a new job as CEO of a "large privately-held company," according to the filing. His last day with Salesforce.com will be Friday. The company he is joining will announce the appointment later today, Salesforce.com said.

Freeland, one of three co-presidents at San Francisco-based Salesforce.com, was a high-profile poach for Salesforce.com when he joined two years ago. Before joining the company, Freeland was managing partner for CRM at Accenture, where he was instrumental in leading the influential systems integrator's embrace of Salesforce.com's unorthodox on-demand software model. Under Freeland's tenure, a practice once built almost entirely around Siebel's CRM line became more heterogeneous, encouraging the major enterprise clients it worked with to explore Salesforce.com's offerings.

At Salesforce.com, Freeland focused on business development and alliances, while co-president Jim Steele oversaw sales and distribution and co-president Frank van Veenendaal headed services and the company's SMB sales. Salesforce.com representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Freeland's position will be filled.

Three years after its splashy IPO, Salesforce.com is now weathering some changes in its executive ranks. Longtime CFO Steve Cakebread, who made plans in 2006 to retire from Salesforce.com but withdrew his retirement announcement two months later, will finally hand in his job title, but he's trading up: Cakebread is currently training a CFO successor and will become Salesforce.com's president and chief strategy officer early next year. Earlier this year, Salesforce.com lost AppExchange General Manager Rene Bonvanie, who checked out after four months on the job.

Freeland earned a nice payday for his two years of Salesforce.com service. In addition to a $300,000 annual salary and eligibility for annual bonuses of up to $300,000, Freeland's hiring agreement with Salesforce.com granted him options on 300,000 shares with a four-year vesting schedule and a strike price of $25.19. At Salesforce.com's closing price yesterday of $50.47, the value of Freeland's vested options sits at around $3.8 million. The agreement Salesforce.com signed yesterday with Freeland also calls for him to receive a lump-sum parting payment of $67,500.